Retrofit Designs
These designs are a result of brainstorming by the Summer 2009 CDC team. It is our hope that one or more of these designs can be used to retrofit the current AguaClara plants to solve the problem of foam forming on the surface of the plants.
We have four different overall design ideas to retrofit the Linear Flow Orifice Meter (LFOM):
*A bucket inside the LFOM to catch the influent water. Hopefully the water will not be aerated as much as it overflows from the bucket down into the LFOM. This idea was conceived by Prof. Weber-Shirk as a parallel to using a teacup in the sink to prevent bubbles from forming while doing dishes.
*A bucket inside the LFOM with orifices at the bottom of the the sides. It is our hope that the water flowing out through the orifices will not be aerated as much as water in the previous design (bucket with no holes) flowing over the edge.
*Vertical or inclined planes. The water should hit the plane and then flow down the plane, with less aeration when it reaches the water at the bottom of the LFOM.
*A pipe inside the LFOM. Same general idea as the vertical/inclined planes.